The scene is looking west from the vicinity of Hospital Calderón
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A.M. Costa Rica photo

Association believes it has won residency fight

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Association of Residents of Costa Rica figures that it has won its
fight to keep immigration officials from demanding new paperwork from foreigners
who live here.

Ryan Piercy, general manager of the association, said Monday that the
organization has won three of four cases it brought in the Sala IV constitutional
court, and the fourth case has not yet been decided.

The association, which is a major resource for North Americans who seek
some form of residency status here, went to court last year. In
October immigration officials said they were investigating hundreds
and perhaps thousands of pensionado and rentista residencies
that had been approved by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo.

The Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería
claimed that the paperwork submitted by many expats did not conform to
what the law required.

Piercy said Monday that the association just received a legal summary
of the decision handed down in one constitutional case. The major point
is that the constitutional court agreed with the association that the government
cannot go back over its own actions, said Piercy.

Immigration can only require the paperwork specified in the law for
renewal of the residency status, Piercy said, citing the decision. That
paperwork, in the case of pensionados and rentistas, includes proof that
the individual has spent sufficient time in Costa Rica and has changed
a certain amount of money into colons. For pensionados, the amount is $7,200
for the year or $600 a month. For rentistas, the amount is $12,000 or $1,000
a month.

Immigration officials refused to renew these temporary residencies until
the paperwork within each foreigner’s file conformed to what the law requires.

The problem developed because several lawyers, including Lilliana Torres
Murillo, who works in conjunction with the association, followed simplified
procedures that had been approved by the tourism institute. Although the
immigration department approves most residency requests, the tourism institute
was designated in the law as the agency that would approve requests for
pensionado and rentista status.

Although the action of the immigration
department had been characterized as an investigation of certain lawyers,
including Ms. Torres, Marco Badilla, director general, said last month
that all his department wanted was for foreigners to bring their files
into conformity with the law. He discounted reports of an investigation.

The law says that paperwork that foreigners must present for residency
must be authenticated at every step of the submission process. This is
called apostille. So a U.S. birth certificate presented as part
of a residency request must be signed by a local or state official. That
signature must be verified by other county or state officials. The signatures
of the county or state officials must be verified by the secretary of state
in the relevant state. Then the document and the verifications must be
submitted to a Costa Rican consul so that the secretary of state’s verification
can itself be verified.

Then once the document comes to Costa Rica, it is translated and the
signature of the Costa Rican consul is itself verified by the Ministerio
de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto. This detailed process, designed to prevent
fraud, is specified in international treaties.

Much of the paperwork in the residency files under dispute were simply
notarized here in Costa Rica, and there is no chain of verification.

Piercy said that he would be meeting soon with immigration officials
to insist that they begin to issue renewals of the pensionado and rentista
carnets that had been withheld since October.

The residents involved in the dispute are those who obtained pensionado
or rentista residency between 1999 when the expedited system was approved
by the tourism institute to late 2002 when immigration officials got a
legal opinion from the Procuraduría General de la República
requiring the more complex verification process. Many of these people who
are affected do not know it because no effort has been made by immigration
or the lawyers involved to contact them.

The issue only becomes known as each individual seeks to renew the residency
status. Renewal is required every two years.

The single constitutional court decision that the association has directs
the immigration department to pay court costs and damages, Piercy said,
but he doubts that this will happen soon, if at all.

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Here is the hidden load of
drugs that was being carried by a tractor trailer Sunday.

Dog sniffs out bagsidentified as cocaine

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Investigators are crediting a drug-sniffing dog for finding 250 kilos
(550 pounds) of cocaine that was hidden in the tractor of a transport rig
that was about to cross the border into Nicaragua Sunday morning.

Agents said that five large rigs were waiting permission to cross the
border at Peñas Blancas when the dog, part of the Unidad Canina
of the Judicial Investigation Organization, gave the alarm.

A detailed inspection of the tractor led to the discovery of 14 nylon
sacks that contained the drug, agents said. The sacks were hidden in the
rear part of the tractor, they added.

Arrested was a Guatemalan trucker, identified as Victor Manuel Montenegro
García, 53. He was carrying canned tuna, sardines and furniture
in the trailer part of his rig, agents said. The man had been in the country
about a week, agents said.

The man got six months preventative detention in the Juzgado Penal de
Liberia Monday. The case is being handled by the Sección de Estupefacientes
of the Judicial Investigating Organization.

Trinidad and Tobagotrade delegation here

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Some 45 persons representing 25 businesses have arrived in Costa Rica
from Trinidad and Tobago. They will be here through Thursday making trade
contacts.

The visit, headed by Ken Valley, the trade minister of Trinidad and
Tobago, is the first visible result of a free trade pact signed by Costa
Rica and the Caribbean Community last week, according to the Costa Rican
ambassador in Port of Spain, Carlos Isidro Echeverría.

The delegation was received Monday in Casa Amarilla, the foreign ministry
by Roberto Tovar Faja, the minister, who pointed out the enormous opportunities
that the free trade pact offers for commerce and to expand political relations
between the two countries.

The delegation will meet with President Abel Pacheco tonight. Other
meetings are with tourism and financial officials.

Suspect in murderbelieved on the run

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Investigators are seeking help from the public to locate the principal
suspect in the murder of a woman Sunday afternoon.

The suspect is described as a Nicaraguan male of an

Moya in competition

athletic build with the last names
of Moya Calderón.

The dead woman is Marlene Vargas Morera, 50, of San Rafael Arriba de
Desamparados. She died of a knife wound to the heart.

Moya lived with her, but fled the scene shortly after the murder. Neighbors
said his hands were bloody. Although police said they arrived

at the scene about 4 minutes after an emergency call, they were unable
to find him.

The Judicial Investigating Organization is in charge of the case now
and has set up these numbers for information: 295-3372, 295-3373, 295-3311
and 295-3936.

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The United States and the Dominican Republic concluded a free-trade
agreement Monday that will promote growth and opportunity by integrating
the Dominican Republic into the recently concluded U.S.-Central American
Free Trade Agreement, according to a press release issued by the Office
of the U.S. Trade Representative.

"This is a proud day for the people of the Dominican Republic and the
United States: with close ties and $9 billion in trade already, this free-trade
agreement will help both countries to grow stronger together," said U.S.
Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.

With the addition of the Dominican Republic to the "cutting-edge, modern"
agreement reached between the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras and Nicaragua, the combined total goods trade among all seven
countries is approximately $32 billion, Zoellick observed.

The trade representative’s press release explained that the inclusion
of the Dominican Republic in the trade pact not only will lower trade barriers,
but

also will require reforms to foster
business development and investment. These reforms include enhancing government
transparency, strengthening the rule of law, and improving intellectual
property-rights protection.

A fact sheet and outline of the U.S.-Dominican Republic free-trade agreement
is available at www.ustr.gov, the press release said.

Zoellick thanked two proponents of the free trade agreement, U.S. Rep.
Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, an Illinois
Republican, for their leadership, along with House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Bill Thomas, Republican of California, and Senate Finance Committee
Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican.

Weller accompanied Zoellick on his visit to the Dominican Republic in
January, when the negotiations where launched.

The Dominican Republic is the largest beneficiary of the Caribbean Basin
Initiative, a trade preference program in place since 1984 that provides
duty-free access to products from qualifying countries in the region.

U.S. will conduct extensive study of cattle herds

Special to A.M. Costa Rica

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States will have an enhanced program to
test for the potential presence of bovine spongofirm encephalopathy in
U.S. cattle herds fully operational by June 1, Agriculture Secretary Ann
Veneman said Monday.

Briefing reporters here, Veneman said she hopes the plan will help U.S.
trading partners understand that the United States is "strongly committed
to preventing the occurrence and spread of BSE," also known as mad cow
disease.

Under the enhanced testing plan, which will be posted on the U.S. Department
of Agriculture web site, the government
hopes to test as many cows as possible for BSE during the 12-18 months
after June 1, according to Ron DeHaven, the department's chief veterinarian,
who also spoke at the briefing.

DeHaven said tests will be geographically dispersed around the United
States and proportional to the number of cows in each state. Samples will
be collected from farms, slaughterhouses, rendering plants, veterinary
clinics and livestock auction houses, he said.

Although the Agriculture Department has set no specific goal for the
number of tests to be conducted, DeHaven said that if 268,000 tests were
conducted, the department would have a 99 percent confidence level in determining
whether the United States has a BSE problem and, if so, with what prevalence.

The federal government will work
with state and university diagnostic laboratories to collect and analyze
tests, he said. Suspect test results will be sent to the department’s national
laboratory in Iowa for confirmation, he said.

The "intensive" surveillance program will cover all high-risk animals,
which are those that can’t walk, have a nervous disorder or exhibit signs
of a disease, as well as those that die of unexplained causes. The program
also will include random testing of cows considered normal, he said.

Following the 12-18 month testing period, the department will review
the results of the program and decide on plans for future testing, he said.

Neither the scientific data on mad cow disease nor international animal
health standards support testing 100 percent of slaughtered cattle in the
country, he said.

Veneman said the program will be paid for with $70 million from a budget
transfer.

Increased testing was one of the recommendations of an international
review group formed after a single case of mad cow was discovered in December
2003 in Washington state, Veneman said.

DeHaven added that a rule adopted March 4 allows agriculture officials
to gather additional quantities of cow blood and tissues at slaughter and
processing sites for analysis to detect the presence of other diseases.

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide arrived in the Caribbean
for the first time since fleeing to exile in Africa late last month.

A plane carrying Aristide from the Central African Republic arrived
in Jamaica Monday afternoon at Kingston's Norman Manley international airport.
Where he went from there has not been reported.

Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has frozen his country's diplomatic
relations with Jamaica and recalled Haiti's ambassador to Kingston. Earlier,
Latortue had termed Jamaica's acceptance of the visit as an "unfriendly
act" that will increase tensions.

The deposed Haitian president is accompanied by his wife and bodyguards.
Also with him are Jamaican lawmaker Sharon Hay Webster and U.S. Rep. Maxine
Waters, a Democrat from California.

The official reason for the visit is so Aristide can be reunited with
his two daughters. Jamaican officials say Aristide plans to remain in their
country for up to 10 weeks. They say they have told Aristide he cannot
use Jamaica as a platform

to seek reinstatement in Haiti, some
200 kms. (120 miles) away.

Before leaving Africa, Aristide was asked if he wants to return to power.
He replied, "I'm listening to my people."

Meanwhile, U.S. military spokesmen in Haiti say an American Marine has
been shot and wounded during a peacekeeping patrol in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
They say the Marine was hit late Sunday in the same district where Marines
came
under fire Friday and killed two men in a gunbattle.

This is believed to be the first casualty among U.S. peacekeepers who
arrived in Haiti two weeks ago after Aristide's ouster.

The peacekeepers landed in Haiti just hours after Aristide resigned
under pressure from domestic opponents as well as the United States and
France. He fled Haiti on the same day, as rebels were closing in on Port-au-Prince.

Aristide has accused the United States of forcing him to resign, a charge
the United States has strongly denied.

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